Absolutely terrible leadership. The CEO is an arrogant jerk, and the senior leadership is mostly made up folks he's worked with for many years, which forms this weird clique where nothing will ever change for the better. I was optimistic when they started hiring other senior leaders from other major tech companies (theres some great talent at this company), but I was discouraged to see exactly what I feared would happen, happen. The "old guard" leadership continued to do things their way without giving one single shred of thought to any one elses opinion, and they began alienating the new extremely talented senior level employees they just hired. There is a constant struggle between this old guard/new guard, and it lends to a very tumultuous environment. Leadership touts culture as one of their most important core values, and you'll hear everyone at the top parrot the phrase "we're a culture company", however, like so many other companies, this is all talk and no follow through. There is no "culture" to speak of, except that of toxic leadership. It's a shame, because Paradox really does have great technology, and I think there is a lot of potential for the company. I would have loved to stay here if leadership didn't make every day truly miserable. Lastly, expect to be VASTLY over worked. It starts in onboarding and never lets up. The onboarding experience at Paradox was the most aggressive onboarding I've ever experienced. It was two weeks straight of 12+ hours a day of work. You were in back to back Onboarding sessions all day during business hours, and then had 4-6 hours of homework to complete each night. I remember thinking to myself, "if this is what they expect during onboarding, I'm worried for what they'll expect after we're done ramping." Well, that was exactly correct. If you're good at your role, you will have no work/life balance. The better you do, the more they'll pile on to you. And it's an issue from the top down.. Everyone from VP's to new employees are working ragged. Most of the leadership works 100 hours a week, and they'll expect you to do the same. I'm all for the "startup mentality" of grinding and building, but for a company that barely issues stock to new employees, this kind of expectation is insane. There is a very real attrition problem, and unless they can get a handle on that and make some serious changes at the highest levels of leadership, I fear this company will never reach its real potential. Oh, also, they require you to sign a fairly draconian non-compete agreement, and they do not appear to be shy about enforcing it. So beware of that when you're looking over your employment documentation.
